Is that blue sky I see peeking out of the clouds, Rebecca? If so, send some my way. Haven't had a sunny day for well over a week, now.

In fact, got so frustrated I just threw on a raincoat and rode in the rain, this morning. And most of those rainy 24 miles (21.5 of them, in fact) were on this one.


Yup, got a call, late yesterday, that my new All City Nature By was ready. By the time I got home and changed the saddle, added a computer, handlebar bag, water bottle cage and made some fit adjustments, it was too late in the day to ride and, it was also raining, too. Surprise, surprise.

Had the shop do some mods for me on the Nature Boy to better suit my riding. First thing was to change it from a drop bar to a flat bar, since all my other bikes are flat bar. This is easily done, since All City uses the same frame for their drop bar bikes and flat bar bikes. Did take a MUCH shorter stem to get it done, but works, great. Next up was to go with different tires than the 700x33 stock tires. I went with 700x38 Panaracer Gravel Kings, set up tubeless, both for comfort and safety on rough or gravel strewn roads. Lastly, was to change the gearing to match what I wanted for my area roads that I would be riding.

So how did it ride? Looks like I got it just right. The bigger tires did a great job in the rain on the wet pavement, no slipping at all, even on wet leaves and sand on the road. Great for comfort on the rough patches, too. Could probably ride gravel with this one, too, but I have better choices for that work. The Nature Boy will be a pavement bike.

The gearing was a bit higher than I expected as far as pedaling effort, but calculating exactly what you'll get with any single speed gear ratio and tire combo is part art and part science. The important thing is that I could handle it, though. For comparison, my Gunnar is also set up for road work. With the Gunnar at max spin on the flats, I can do 13 mph before spinning out. On the Nature Boy with its higher gear ration, I can hit 15.5 mph before spinning out. That's a significant difference in a single speed and, yeah, over the course of 21.5 miles, I could feel it in my legs. Glad to report, though, that I purposely tested me and the bike on my two steepest and hardest climbs and we made it. Took a lot more standing to pedal to do it, but we made it. At this point, I think I can develop the leg strength in a couple of weeks of pedaling this one. If not, a simple gear change is easy to do.

Now down to only my fat bikes for bikes with full gearing and one of those will likely end up single speed, too.

As for the other 2.5 lies, that was on the Krampus on our soggy trails, also in the pouring rain, with Star running along for company. Border Collies like this cool and wet weather more than I do, but it sure beats sitting in the house.